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Monday, 15 October 2012

Jo Carroll's Hidden Tiger

“You’ll be
surprised what you can do with a rhino behind you.”

Jo Carroll

This was one of my favourite
quotes from Jo Carroll’s latest book,Hidden Tiger Raging Mountain. I suspect I would curl up in a
ball and cry, but not Jo and so I had to invite her along to my blog and ask
her a question or two:

Speaking as a
wimpy, scaredy-cat, non-traveller can you explain to me why you go travelling, on your own, to such far-flung places?

That's a hard one.
All I can say is that I love it - love that stomach-lurching dislocation of
stepping into a new country, the not-knowing, the effort of trying to cast off
all my western assumptions, begin from a place of knowing nothing and then
trying to understand. I love the extraordinary efforts total strangers can make
to help me feel at home. I love the smells of hot cities. I love the orchestra
of the jungle. (I used to think I loved tigers!)

Buddhists in Lumbini, Nepal

What is it about
Nepal? It sounds as if it’s touched your heart like no other place.

I do, indeed, love
Nepal. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I never quite get over how huge the
mountains are! Even though we know the Himalayas are magnificent, it's still
humbling to totter round their foothills. But it's more than that - I love the
people, their humour, their generosity and their determination to grow their
rice or open their businesses in spite of the weather or the terrain or the
lack of electricity and governmental chaos.

Which was the one moment, standing out from all of those truly terrifying
situations, when you really didn’t think you’d get home alive?

Coming down the
mountain, in the dark, after the cyclone. Never again! (Never again to
cyclones, that is - not never again to travelling!)

Jo on a wobbly bridge, foothills of the Himalayas

Do you have any future travelling plans?

I wanted to
go to Madagascar in January because I've never been. I even bought the Lonely Planet
only to find that it's cyclone season. Since I have yet to rediscover a sense
of humour where cyclones are concerned, I decided to look elsewhere. So now
it’s Thailand and Laos after Christmas but I'm not sure how easy independent
travel is there. I shall have find that out when I arrive.

Thanks, Jo, I think you're amazing, an example to all of us *polite cough* older ladies. I know that everyone reading this post wishes you an enjoyable and SAFE time in Thailand and we're looking forward to hearing about it.

What a fascinating interview! Jo sounds such an interesting person - I'm definitely going to check her book out. How brave to go traveling all by herself and if I had a rhino behind me, I'd run like hell! Thank you Rosalind.

I thought I commented but it must have been on twitter. Jo you had my heart in my mouth when I read your last book,I have now started this one and I'm on tenterhooks waiting for this bloomin tiger. Lovely interview Ros.

Rosalind, thanks for a great post and Jo, I think I am a kindred spirit with you although my preferred land is Africa. I have, luckily, never been confronted with a tiger or had a rhino behind me, but I have had a few close encounters with rather large snakes and an anxious hippo mum too. I shall need to read your book now although I fear it will give me the wander lust again just as I'd managed to squash it for a while.....

Yes, Jo, it was my first, and still my favourite book. I self published it through Lulu.com and it's still there and also on Amazon. It's called African Ways. It's about my first few years in South Africa when I was living on a remote farm with no electricity, quite often no water and where we still used wind-up phones on a party line :) I'm intending to revise it as a new edition soon as I'd like to give it a new lease of life.

Thanks Rosalind! It's really great to be in touch with other like minded souls. Maybe I could have you as a guest over at my blog? And Jo too. That would make it a livelier and more social place too. I'll contact you over the weekend to see if you would be willing.

I love just the title of this book! I'm a very wimpy traveler as well so this was really an inspiring to me. I'm looking forward to reading the book. Great to meet you, Jo and thanks for sharing, Rosalind!

Rosalind Adam

I am a writer, committed worrier and nostalgia obsessive with a fascination for all things historical. I have just completed an MA in Creative Writing at Leicester University and I loved every minute of it. Please scroll down to see my books...

The Children's Book of Richard III

This is my latest book, illustrated by Alice Povey. Click on the picture to buy a copy or go to Amazon.

Children's History of Leicester

A Children's History of Leicester published by Hometown World Publishers, 2011

Bathtime Rap

Bathtime Rap is a fun children's picture book published by Franklin Watts, 2008.

Building a Community

A history of the Leicester Progressive Jewish Congregation

Heritage Funded Projects

I was lead facilitator on the following two Heritage Lottery funded projects:

Leicester Jewish Voices

In 2009 I coordinated a memories project looking at the Leicester Jewish Community during the 1950s and 60s. You can see the website by clicking on the picture.

Local Cemetery Project

I coordinated the cataloguing of the Jewish section of Leicester Gilroes to provide a genealogical search facility. Subsequent research of a number of the headstones enabled us to record 'The Lives Behind the Stones'. 2014/15